How we define a life well lived? It helps to interview someone who’s been at it for four decades and found their sweet spot for contribution and joy.

In this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show we hear from Joel Makower, the Chairman and Executive Editor of GreenBiz Group. They’re the producer of the VERGE conference and also GreenBiz forums and the State of Green Business report. Joel is a journalist by training and loves the convergence of sustainability with technology and innovation.

We discuss some of Joel’s insight into green business successes and his thoughts on the future, as well as reflecting on his active career and legacy.

Have you ever thought about how we could leverage the internet and IT capabilities to boost health? If you think of new opportunities like sensor technology, DNA sequencing, and the nearly unlimited data crunching capabilities of computers, our future has the potential to be much healthier.

The question is how to harness IT best and as fast as possible. I know that with my own body, I’m now able to test and track so many data points: blood sugar, sleep, ketones, pulse, 100 cycling data points including power output, cadence, TSB [training stress balance], plus my DNA and beyond.

Rob Bernard gets to think about these issues and actually do something about them at the highest of levels and with the largest of IT platforms. He’s the Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft. Some of his early efforts focussed on getting the company to net zero energy including their enormous data centers and hundreds of buildings. He also wants to inspire 110,000 employees to become stewards of the planet.

I’m excited for you to meet Rob Bernard in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. Join me in learning how Rob is working to encourage and support Microsoft and their thousands of partners to embrace sustainability. When you talk to Rob, his eyes sparkle and you can see his fast brain performing extensive calculations and simulations of the infinite opportunities. He’s passionate about using his ingenuity and position to create a better world.

This month’s reading of CO2 is 407 parts per million. That’s sixteen percent [57 PPM] beyond the highest level advocated by scientists. When I was born we were at 317 PPM. Now, climate change is in full swing with melting glaciers, ocean rise, increasing annual hurricanes, floods, and ocean acidification.

It’s depressing to witness a complete withdrawal of a decade of good work as we push America first – even beyond our ability to sustain and provide for the future.

However, in this new era of climate gloom, there’s still many actions of hope. One bright spot is entrepreneur Brent Constantz, CEO of a fascinating start-up called Blue Planet. The company has patented a biomimic technology inspired by marine ecosystems used to build coral reefs by mineralizing carbon into building and highway materials. In full disclosure, I’m pleased to be on their advisory board.

As a serial inventor, innovation comes naturally to Brent Constantz having founded six Silicon Valley companies. He also has over 100 US patents and another 100 pending. He teaches biomineralization at Stanford University.

I’m excited to introduce you to Brent and share our engaging conversation about the future of Earth in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. Click above to listen in to our dialog.

Categories:

DO YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL?Take our BuildMoveTMquiz!

Are you a Movement Builder or do you have the potential to be? Add your name and email below to access the quiz!

Please sign me up for your newsletter!

Praise For David Gottfried

"Our future depends on sustainability...David Gottfried's pioneering work is proof that we can do it..."

— President Bill Clinton

"I recently heard you speak at Design Green Cincinnati. Your story has given me confidence and patience to stay persistent, knowing that making a difference takes time."

— Shawn Hesse, Leed AP Architecture, Bayer Becker

"Martha Graham, the great dancer and choreographer, once described the creative process as "blessed unrest." The same could be said for David Gottfried. Anyone who knows David can feel the energy. It is a toe-tapping, eye-flashing kinetic that takes on any challenge. What he took on was the building industry and its relationship to living systems. He founded and helped build the most important green trade organization in the world. There is virtually no second place. No organization has had a bigger impact on the environment than this one..."

— Paul Hawken, Author, Ecology of Commerce

"David Gottfried gave one of the most moving and inspirational talks to the Leadership Summit on Sustainable Design in San Francisco and he was a featured speaker with Dan Pink not so very long ago in Toronto. I think you will enjoy him: good sense of humor, relaxed, articulate, passionate, youthful. He has a fresh message."

— James P. Cramer, Chairman & Principal, The Greenway Group

"I enjoyed your presentation. Your honesty about the setbacks and your determination to proceed were both very inspiring."

— Kurt Lavenson, Owner & Principal, Lavenson Design

"Thank you so much for doing the closing keynote for this year's Chapter Forum [at Greenbuild Philadelphia]. You physically and mentally brought the energy level up, and inspired our community like only you can do."

— Margo Street, LEED Green Associate Manager, Community Advancement, U.S. Green Building Council

David is a person who's simply wired differently than most others. His sense of right and wrong is like forged steel. His understanding of a holistic approach to problem solving, creating and human wellness is something special. And his compassion for his fellow humans and those generations yet conceived is a life force about which I stand transfixed in some childlike combination of reverence and awe.

— Rick Fedrizzi

What I love about what you've done is to return people back to a way of thinking that is in sympathy with the world instead of standing on top of the world.

— David Adjaye

I just wanted to drop you a note to say how much I am enjoying your podcasts--really informative and really inspiring!